This is my blog, A Green and Rosie Life, which is all about helping you live life that bit greener without having to build an off-grid log cabin in the woods or knit your own nettle fibre undies! It's about helping you make simple changes that together will make a big difference to our beautiful world and make it a better place for our children.
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Thursday, 18 August 2016

August Garden Round-Up

I am sure many gardeners will nod away in agreement when I say that 2016 has been a difficult gardening year. For us, in Normandy, a mild winter was followed by a long cold spring (in fact we almost had no frosts until March and they continued through April) and then a summer that just took an age to get going. This all meant a very late start to the growing season. Usually by now I have been harvesting summer vegetables for weeks but this year I am only just reaching "glut time". However I am not too worried and so long as we get a nice autumn with no early frosts (I have known them as early as September 28th) then with luck I will be OK - especially as some crops in the polytunnel are looking like being the best I have ever grown.

But first a few pictures from outside the polytunnel:

I lost my sweet peas when I was away on the UK in the Spring but my various types of climbing bean are almost making up for their loss in looks if, sadly, not in scent.

And soon their will be sunflowers for even more colour:

Back to the polytunnel now which really is fit to burst:

The late potatoes I planted in there after my outdoor ones got blight are looking healthy (fingers crossed):

My tomatoes may not be fully ripe yet but they are looking like they are going to give me a bumper crop. Passata anyone?

And with luck these brassicas and chard will give us crops through the winter.

Oh and peppers - I could not finish without having a little trumpet blowing for my peppers. Generally I can grow pretty good peppers so long as I buy plants rather than try to get them to germinate myself and this year they are ENORMOUS. I guess they must really like the horse manure I dug into the polytunnel beds earlier in the year.

Do not think, though, for one moment that everything is doing well. Outside, my onion crop was pathetic, I lost all of my carrots, beetroot, chard, swede and dwarf French beans in a sea of weeds and my parsnips, which I was carefully growing in loo rolls, fried in the polytunnel as we had a couple of hot days when I was away. Thanks to a lovely friend coming for a weeding holiday (she lives in Barcelona and misses the green of Normandy!) the weeds are now back under control and I have sown various late seeds, hopeful that they'll come to something - Pak Choi, Various other Oriental leaves, spring onions, turnips (not quite the same as parsnips but hey ho) and spring cabbage. I just need that lovely long Autumn now please.

So how is your veg garden doing? What have been your successes and failures?

For more garden goodies do head over to Mammasuarus where the lovely Annie spoils us with her fabulous photos and runs the How Does Your Garden Grow linky.

8 comments
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Looks like you'll have a nice crop of tomatoes soon. I agree it's been a difficult growing year; everyone at our allotment says the same. Are those purple bean flowers? Our biggest problems have been slugs and garlic rust. The dampness also bought on onion rot but thankfully we managed to save most of our onions. The french and runner beans have done well though :)

Such a shame about the carrots, beetroots & parsnips but boy oh boy the polytunnel is kicking vegetable butt!I forgot just how full it gets - all those tomatoes! I love that you have a friend to come out to help you weed, saves your back a little at least :)How are the piggies getting on? x

Ohh, I could do with someone who wants a weeding holiday!! Sorry to hear about the parsnips, our onions were bad too and covered in weeds but I too am hoping for a good september/october so the tomatoes can ripen, plus I've some borlotti and climbing beans that could probably do with the extra months too. Lovely bean flower shots too

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Rosie is a mum, smallholder, gite owner and writer who lives in Normandy, France with her husband, 2 sons, a dog, 4 cats and quite a few farm animals (but no hippos). She has a degree in Agriculture and Environmental Science and a passion for helping everyone become that bit greener. She hopes to show you how you can make simple changes that together will make a big difference to our beautiful world and make it a better place for our children.
Rosie has been blogging since 2008 and has now relaunched her blog as A Green and Rosie Life. When she is not tending animals, children, the garden or gite guests she enjoys walking, a good TV drama, eating chocolate and dreaming of the day she can own a hippo. She does not do DIY and detests the taste of avocados.